


Maintenance and Tuning

by Coffin Liqueur (HP_Lovecats)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Finding New Coping Mechanisms, Fluff, Implied Anxiety, Kinda, Restlessness, implied hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HP_Lovecats/pseuds/Coffin%20Liqueur
Summary: Ibuki has been plucking out her hair lately; Sonia, in response, tries to do a Thing.
Relationships: Mioda Ibuki/Sonia Nevermind
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Maintenance and Tuning

Sonia’s fingers threaded deeper through Ibuki’s hair, and then stopped.

She blinked, and gently pursed her lips; she tried to keep the movement as subtle, seemingly accidental, as possible as the back of her forefinger grazed an almost-smooth patch of skin.

She felt as if her heart was drawing down lower in her chest, stretching the cords to which it connected.

And then her eyes flitted open a little wider, and she leaned back - a curtain of hair still loosely hanging from her hand - when Ibuki’s head gave a slight turn.

“Hm?” High-hummed - bouncing the way Ibuki’s voice near- _always_ bounced in and from inside her. “Is there a holdup, Sonia?” She began to wiggle. “Did you leave some of your stuff back in your cabin or something? Ibuki will do her best to sit still while you go do whatever it is you need to do!”

...Sonia’s face readily melted into a gentle little smile, while simultaneously, a needle pushed into her chest between her ribs.

On one hand, she had suspected, for a moment, that she might not have been as subtle as she’d thought. Might have offended her. She shook her head, and brought that smile higher and lighter until it lifted into her eyes from below, knowing if anyone, Ibuki was likely to be able to hear such things. “No! Not at all! Please excuse me; I was just contemplating how to proceed... Now, let’s see,” she said, as she began to lightly drag the lock of hair she held straight towards her, and set to combing it, and the next, and the next...

...The pang in her chest abated as she went to work, but the _thought_ still held pressed into her brain that it wouldn’t have done to leave Ibuki _trying to sit still_.

If that had been as _impossible_ for Ibuki these days as it had once been, she doesn’t think she would have minded the prospect at all - or was that one of _those_ situations, where you don’t know what you have until it’s gone? Something about paradises and parking lots, the expression went, as she’d heard from Ibuki once, though it was hard to tell from her what idioms came from a dialect all her own; Sonia didn’t question it much anymore, at least when it came to interact with her one-on-one.

Instead, though, it ached to see Ibuki in a state that was _strange_ for a _strange_ person - sitting in the dining hall, slumped forward and arms crossed, chewing on her lip and staring at the wall like she was trying to remember an important _clue_ to remember a goal that she’d forgotten, a hand coming up for a finger to twist in a rope of that long, thick hair of hers, the gesture and the stare persisting with her voice meandering into odd absent little peaks and hiccups when you asked her what was wrong; hanging to the side and looking out to paths and doors and scanning them for _something_ beyond themselves during group activities, hands fiddling and tacking her nails together before one would come up to scratch at the back of her head and then pick.

Pick.

...Pick...

...

...She would even be found sitting on the beach, just before the water’s edge, guitar in her lap, freezing in the middle of a strum, or making not a sound at all. Staring long and long out over and across the sea. Silhouette crooked, an elbow and a hand up too high.

It was very reassuring to hear her music, now, whatever it was. To see her _leaping_ onstage - no impromptu celebrations, lately, apart from recent winter birthdays - and _shrieking_ with something more _laughter_ than _song_ as a wailing guitar filled _everyone’s_ minds to vicious overflowing; to hear her contentedly mid-tune, lids of her eyes dreamily-lowered, as she sung arcane lyrics in a homey and rough little voice.

To hear her humming, poppy and bright with her heels kicking rhythmically against the back legs of her chair - there was reassurance to the contentedly, blithely unfocused sound, and motion, and play.

Sonia couldn’t help but hum along, herself, as she combed Ibuki’s hair to a fresh gloss, and threaded it into braids and loops that formed more loops that piled high and curved close, each _hugging_ that which surrounded it tight and fixing and shining there.

She shut her eyes in bright satisfaction once she was done - she emitted one last high, laughing hum as she stepped back and aside, brightly asked Ibuki if she liked it

Ibuki turned to the mirror that Sonia had been standing before with clean bangs, and apart from that, not a strand of hair out of place, in buns that ended with feather-like plumes; in snakes that fixed a crown of separate shapes and bows into place. Her eyes fluttered wide; her mouth formed an “ooh”.

And then she _beamed_ , and Sonia felt the _light_ behind her face until she was undeniably _beaming_ too, even as Ibuki’s _beam_ broke with a wrinkle of her nose and a rise into a practical _war-cry_ of delight that culminated and turned as she _threw_ herself into Sonia’s arms; Sonia caught her heavily, but catch her, she did, all the same, and held her against a chest that shook with a hybrid of laughter and what warm _hums_ it seemed she still had in her that she couldn’t resist getting out.

“ _Aaaaaah_ , it looks so _fancy goth- **rock**...!_” Ibuki gleefully gritted from a throat tight with joy, nuzzling into Sonia’s dress. “How did Ibuki never even _think_ to come for Sonia for some high-class costuming input before? We would make, like, the _ultimate_ symphonic metal duo...!”

“Ahh - try to be careful with it... _Capiche?_ ” Sonia said, silver-bell-like and faint, with warm eyes turned down onto the top of Ibuki’s head. “It won’t be easy to remove those pins unless you intend do, but if you must for any reason, then it isn’t easy to put them back without starting everything over from scratch... I know from experience!”

A kiss, before she rested her cheek where her eyes had landed.

Wrapped her arms around Ibuki tighter, and began to turn in dance-moves with her in place.

“But if you _would_ like to come to me for assistance in the future, then I’ll be ready and eager to offer it at any time...!”


End file.
